2 Days To Go

I am here really excited for the race on Sunday, but at the same time I am also trying to fight of the cold like symptoms I am feeling. I’ve been watching everything I do in the lead up to this race, and my year has been planned around completing this.

Either way (sick or not) I will be running the race on Sunday, I just hope it will be as close to 100% as possible. As it is part of the bigger picture in my weight loss process it will be a crawl across the finish line if that’s what it take.

I was reading an article about a young AFL (Australian Rules Football) player and what he has been through and sacrificed to get where he is, and there were a couple of quotes in there that really resonated with me.

The more you sweat in training, the less you bleed in battle

and

Have the mentality of be comfortable with being uncomfortable. While this is more a statement than a quote, I think I will have to put this one in to play on Sunday.

Either way, I know that my result will be a positive one on Sunday purely for the fact that I WILL FINISH THE RACE!

Until next time, happy fitness!

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Celebrity Endorsements

As mentioned yesterday, I was looking through some news online a few days back and come across an article (full article available here where a celebrity/ company have cut ties from their agreement. In this case a comedian (Magda Szubanski) who was “hired” as the face of Jenny Craig in Australia.

To Madga’s credit over the course of two years she lost an incredible 36kgs starting at 121kgs to 85kgs. From the report it states that Szubanski was no longer required because she could not lose upwards of 30kgs quick enough. This was just after having a new contract for six months.

While Jenny Craig have reported a spike in new customers, I was thinking….Do Celebrity Endorsements come in to your thought process??

What is a celebrity endorsement….?

A form of brand or advertising campaign that involves a well known person, using their fame to help promote a product or service. Manufacturers of perfumes and clothing are some of the most common practices of classic celebrity endorsement techniques, such as television ads and launch event appearances, in the marketing of their products.

Are there any benefits of a Celebrity Endorsement?

While I wouldn’t buy something based on who’s face or name is attached to it, there are times where they do work for the company. For example, prior to having Michael Jordan being a Nike supporter, Nike only worked with Tennis and Track athletes. From there the Nike/ Jordan relationship has grown in to the powerhouse it is today….even with Jordan no longer being involved as a player.

Another way it works (or meant to work) is brand recognition. How many times have you remembered the celebrity rather than the product/ company when it comes searching for what you are looking for.

On the flip side it can be a detriment to the company. Without having to think, 2009 and the publicity of Tiger Woods and his wrong doings come to mind.

Within weeks of this happening Tiger and the companies he was endorsing (mainly from the companies point of view) part ways. These were the likes of General Motors, Gillette, Accenture and Gatorade. While Nike stuck with Woods, there was some negativity towards the company and Golf in general took a hit with him not being on the PGA Tour for some time.

In my opinion I don’t go out and seek items just because they are endorsed by my favourite sportsmen and women. I make selections based on what I want out of a product and how it can best help me. Not by the fact that said celebrity is being paid an exorbitant amount of money to have their name associated with.

I mean when I started this weight loss process, it wasn’t because Mel B (former Spice Girl) began her journey with Jenny Craig. It was because I needed to work at losing weight not only for me, but to be the best father/ role model I could be for my children.

Feel free to leave your input in the comments section on if/ why you would/wouldn’t use a product or company due to who that have endorsing this.

WRECKED!

STAIRS….

….Is there anything further that needs to be said? Today for some silly reason I put myself through a fairly intense stair session. Overall I covered 3.49km in 26m24s.

The run was around 500-600m and then there was a little loop of stairs that I clibmed three times in between the running part of the session (pictures are below). It was my first high intensity session for a while and I knew I was going to be in a world of pain, but in the grand scheme of things it was totally worth it.

I have one more session remaining for the week at 10kms in lenght which will lead me in to my “rest” week before the City To Bay run on Sunday week.

That is all I have for today, but I am working on a couple of posts to publish over the coming days. One of these being a roundup of my food intake etc as part of the research program I am involved with, and the other is around celebrity endorsements in fitness/ health etc after reading an article about a celebrity parting ways with a weight loss support company here in Australia.

Until next time, happy fitness!

The bridge in the distance was where the run went to and then back again. Going towards the bridge was in to a lovely head wind!

This picture is of the stairs I was running on. While not overly long it was still a pain to do haha!

Another day closer

City to Bay countdown – 11 days to go!

Yesterday I went for a nice run (a touch over 4kms) which was a new PB for me. at this time of the training it is really nice to see that I am progressing well and my times are coming down….albeit slowly! I completed the run in 25m25s.

As it is getting closer to race day I am neither unsure or sure about what to expect. One thing I do know is, 12km’s is going to be a test. I know I have the runs under my belt, but what shoudl I be doing in the lead up next week?

I have two runds remaining this week (another approx 5km and 10km), but what will happen next week? I won’t be running next week, but I will head out for a walk and maybe get on the bike early in the week to get the legs moving so I am not sitting around stagnent.

Apart from the walking and bike ride, I am at a bit of a loss as to what I should be doing.

I would love to hear from any runners out there about what they go through in the lead up to a race that helped them out on race day, or just general hints about what to expect on the day.

Unitl next time, happy fitness (running)!

One step closer

As mentioned earlier I am looking to boost my running over the next couple of weeks in readiness for the City to Bay “fun run” on September 21. The City to Bay is a 12km run from the city centre through to Glenelg (you can see the course map here).

So with this comes the biggest run ever, but in the training I have also broken my longest run (previously 7km). Saturday I actually ran for a total of 10.02km. Completed the run in 1h12m with an average of 7m12s per kilometre. I am hoping to stay around this time in the 12km run as there are no hills and on Saturday there were a couple of larger hills to navigate.

It is a weird feeling as I knew it would be a long hard slog as I have never done it before and didn’t know how to go about pacing etc, but I have finished it and feel like I can go in to the run in a couple of weeks confidently.

Yesterday my legs were a little tight but got out for a big walk around the Zoo with my family for Fathers Day which helped a lot in my recovery. Today they are still a little tight, but I think they would have been a lot worse had I not been as active as I was yesterday. Below are a few pics of my day.

This week will bring another couple of big runs before taking it relatively easy next week with a couple of light walks, stretching and foam rolling.

Also this will be my first full week with my meal plan (which I need to set time aside for to write about) so I will do a review about this at the end of the week.

Research meeting and running

Just a quick on today as I had my meeting with the Researchers that I will be seeing over the next 16 weeks in relation to the difference between continuous dieting and intermittent dieting (one week on/ one week off). I had all of my measurements taken (weight/ height/ bmi etc) as well as a blood test and a Dual energy X-ray Absorptiometry (DEXA) scan.

I am pretty sure I will get a little snap shot of my first session with them in a couple of weeks, when I go back for my second visit. ONly concern that I was made a ware of was that my blood pressure was on the low side of being considered too high. Hopefully over the coming weeks this will lower as I get back in to the swing of things.

When I have a few spare minutes, I will do a full post about the ins and outs of the requirements etc and post my full thoughts on what I expect to gain from the process.

As mentioned in my first post back a couple of days ago, I have been running still and I am 3 runs in to an 8 run Corporate Cup challenge here in Adelaide. My 3 runs to date have been times of 47m29s, 46m47s and 45m.54s. I am happy because while I am not running as much as what I should be, I have been knocking out a better time each run for this 7.2km loop (map below). I am hoping to try and get to 40mins flat or at least (at worst) 41mins by the 8th run.

I am ready……I think

You never know how strong you are, until being strong is your only choice.

Bob Marley

I will be living by these words going in to the next month and beyond. I am more than ready to embrace ‘new’ and ‘change’ and all those other cliches you can think of.

Tonight will be measurements and before photos which I am a little nervous about as I haven’t shared any of my photos around (apart from with a top on), so it is quite daunting but it is all about moving forward and creating a new way of thinking/ seeing myself.

My first couple of days will be basic meals to get me through to the weekend where I can try a couple of the more “fancier” recipes and see what will work for me while I am at work during the week. It will also give me a bit of time to pre cook and prepare a lot of my staples (veggies etc) for the week.

Until next time, happy fitness!

The Announcement

For the month of May, I will be stripping my diet back to strict paleo eating.

Why am I doing it?
Mainly for the challenge. I want to put myself in a situation where it is completely against the norm for what I usually do in my day to day food intake. Along with this I have fallen off the wagon with my food a little lately, and have done quite a bit of reading around the whole Paleo concept and think it is a good fit for me.

What is the 30 day challenge?
The 30 day challenge is a way for me to test myself on a full strict Paleo only diet for a full 30 days, with no cheat meals or cutting corners.

The in’s and out’s
Yes: Eat real food.
Eat meat, seafood, eggs, tons of vegetables, some fruit, and plenty of good fats from fruits, oils, nuts and seeds. Eat foods with very few ingredients, all pronounceable ingredients, or better yet, no ingredients listed at all because they’re totally natural and unprocessed.

No: Avoid for 30 days.
More importantly, here’s what NOT to eat during the duration of your Whole30 program. Omitting all of these foods and beverages will help you regain your healthy metabolism, reduce systemic inflammation, and help you discover how these foods are truly impacting your health, fitness and quality of life.

Do not consume added sugar of any kind, real or artificial. No maple syrup, honey, agave nectar, coconut sugar, Splenda, Equal, Nutrasweet, xylitol, stevia, etc. Read your labels, because companies sneak sugar into products in ways you might not recognize.

Do not consume alcohol in any form, not even for cooking. (And it should go without saying, but no tobacco products of any sort, either.)

Do not eat grains. This includes (but is not limited to) wheat, rye, barley, oats, corn, rice, millet, bulgur, sorghum, amaranth, buckwheat, sprouted grains and all of those gluten-free pseudo-grains like quinoa. This also includes all the ways we add wheat, corn and rice into our foods in the form of bran, germ, starch and so on.

Do not eat legumes. This includes beans of all kinds (black, red, pinto, navy, white, kidney, lima, fava, etc.), peas, chickpeas, lentils, and peanuts. No peanut butter, either. This also includes all forms of soy – soy sauce, miso, tofu, tempeh, edamame, and all the ways we sneak soy into foods (like lecithin).

Do not eat dairy. This includes cow, goat or sheep’s milk products such as cream, cheese (hard or soft), kefir, yogurt (even Greek), and sour cream… with the exception of clarified butter or ghee. (See below for details.)

Do not eat white potatoes. This is somewhat arbitrary, but if we are trying to change your habits (chips and fries) and improve the hormonal impact of your food choices, it’s best to leave white, red, purple, Yukon gold, and fingerling potatoes off your plate.

Do not consume carrageenan, MSG or sulfites. If these ingredients appear in any form on the label of your processed food or beverage, it’s out for the Whole30.
No Paleo-ifying baked goods, desserts, or junk foods. Trying to shove your old, unhealthy diet into a shiny new Whole30 mold will ruin your program faster than you can say “Paleo Pop-Tarts.” This means no desserts or junk food made with “approved” ingredients—no banana-egg pancakes, almond-flour muffins, flourless brownies, or coconut milk ice cream. Don’t try to replicate junk food during your 30 days! That misses the point of the Whole30 entirely.

My journey
I’ll be blogging each week about my journey and various food discoveries. As well as the food sources I discover, I’m also interested to find out about the limitation. I will weigh in prior to day one, along with all my measurements (photos included) and will not step on a scale or measure again until day 31. I will take a photo every few days, but will not look at them until the end of the challenge also.

Also check out my instagram as I’ll be hashtagging everything with #mypaleo

How you can be involved
I would love to hear from everyone who is eating Paleo now, and share any hints and tips (along with awesome recipes) that you have tried along the way. Also a little bit of encouragement never goes astray 😉
Wish Me Luck…I may need it!

Aaahhhhhhh

That was needed. Four days off from training and thinking about training was just what the doctor ordered. Apart from chasing the kids around and a round of golf, I took it easy with a laid back relaxing easter break.

I felt good knowing that I could have the break off from training and wake up today eager to get back in to training, and I can’t wait to head out for a run and stair session at lunch. Unfortunately I haven’t had a chance to complete any of the 14.5 workouts that I set out to do at the beginning of the month, so that has been the only downer about the month so far.

In other news, I will be announcing the changes I mentioned in my previous post tonight, and I am very much looking forward to it, and will be hoping that I can pick the brain (not too muc I promise) of those bloggers that I am currently following for some advice/ hits/ tips.

Anyway, this was just a quick one to let you all know I made it through easter, and can’t wait for the challenges I have coming soon.

New Path Going Forward

So, I have been a bit quiet on the blogging sides of things the last little while, but by no means have I been quiet in general.

I have been doing a lot of reading around different diets, training methods, plateaus in weight loss etc and want to try some new things based on what I have found.

So stay tuned over the next few days to hear all about my (for lack of a better word) epiphany!